Night Light Sleep Tight
Sometimes
it feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything you
need to get done, and on top of that get an adequate amount of sleep. Yet,
sleep is crucial to our health and affects different aspects of the body such as
weight loss, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, some cancers, libido,
and mood swings. Although, mood swings might seem to
you as a normal side effect of sleep deprivation adequate sleep patterns are
much more complex than that.
Some studies have already established that mutations in the
core genes known to be part of the circadian clock lead to sleep phase syndrome
in humans. Thus, Dr. Cavanaugh’s work further exemplified how mutations on
homologs of Drosophila flies also created
defects in the fly sleep cycle. Some of the genes under study were the
210ly-Gal4 and UAS-dTrpAl, that when activated revealed max amount of sleep
throughout the day. Whereas flies that
had only one of the genes had submaximal sleep. Additionally, the flies that had only one gene showed evidence that
sleep is influenced based on the time of day. Similarly, to the flies
homologous flies, the heterozygous flies revealed maximal sleep during the day
and night, but in the transition from day to night Drosophila flies with just one copy showed significantly reduced
sleep. Decreased amount of sleep in the
transition from day to night reflected a theory in humans that proposed our bodies
are most awake in the transition from day to night because this is when
homeostatic sleep drive is at its highest. Thus, Dr. Cavanaugh’s work studying the link
between homeostatic processes and the circadian clock appear to be linked,
although further studies need to be done in order to confirm it.
Furthermore,
additional sleep research has shown that activation of the large ventrolateral neurons in the brain are
involved in light-induced arousal. So
while Dr. Cavanaugh studied genes in neurons known to influence sleep patterns
via activation and inhibition with temperature, other scientists have been analyzing
how different wavelengths of light effect sleep patters. It
doesn’t take a scientist for one to realize that the nice warm yellow glow from
a campfire makes one sleepy, while the buzzing fluorescent light bulbs in the doctors’
office help put you on edge. There might be some science behind this according
to Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, chief of circadian and sleep disorders at Brigham Women’s
Hospital in Boston. Dr. Czeisler told The
New York Times that we should be paying more attention to how different
types of light influence our circadian rhythm. Studies have shown that
different wavelengths of light interfere with our circadian rhythm by sending
internal signals in the body to stop producing melatonin, which is one of the
hormones that helps one fall asleep. Additionally, Dr. Michael J Breus, a fellow and
clinical psychologist at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, also told The New York Times that exposing oneself
to light can have cascading affects on ones health because, as mentioned
earlier, adequate amounts of sleep can have drastic effects on current health
conditions and can also put one at risk for future diseases.
Recently,
technology experts have been jumping at the opportunity to create smart light
bulbs that adjust their glow based on time of day. Even the mega corporation
Apple has jumped on the bandwagon. In the IPhone 6 a new feature was introduced
known as night mode that adjusts the intensity of light based on time of day. The
glow goes from white/blue to yellow like a campfire when the feature is turned
on. This is especially helpful when one whimsically checks their phone right
before bed, and then can’t fall asleep. It is, however, not just technology
experts and light bulb manufacturers who have discovered that different types
of light have varying effects but also interior decorators, and architects are
now being smart about where they place certain light fixtures.
Nevertheless,
lifestyle plays a big impact in regulating sleep patterns. There are
homeostatic mechanisms that regulate the quality of our sleep, and circadian
mechanisms that regulates when we sleep. Dr. Cavanaugh has already hypothesized
there to be a group of neurons in charge of sleep patterns that link
homeostatic and circadian processes. In his study, he looked at two specific
genes known to influence sleep patterns where he used temperature to induce or
activate sleep in Drosophila flies.
It is possible that he would find the theory of different wavelengths of light
influencing our sleep patterns very interesting. Before Dr. Cavanaugh’s work there
was not much known about circadian clock mechanisms, but his work began to
uncover some light on the subject matter. Perhaps, if one plays close attention
to how different types of light influences our sleeping patterns we too can be scientists and uncover what influences
the innate circadian rhythm.
Bibliography
1) Cavanaugh, Daniel, Dr., Abigail Vigderman, Terry Dean,
David Garbe, and Amita Seghal. "The Drosophila Circadian Clock Gates Sleep
through Time-of-Day Dependent Modulation of Sleep Promoting Neurons." Basic
Science; SLEEP 39.2 (2016): 345-56. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.
2.) Kaysen, Ronda. "Light Bulbs That Help You
Sleep." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Feb. 2017. Web.
28 Feb. 2017.
2)http://nyuad.nyu.edu/content/nyuad/en/home/news/campus-community/2015/11/tired--stressed---lonely--the-totally-normal-life-of-a-college-s/_jcr_content/article/image.3.jpg/1447930713571.jpg
3)https://a.disquscdn.com/get?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.eurekalert.org%2Fmultimedia_prod%2Fpub%2Frel%2F72038_rel.jpg&key=PAfHqZK3utc-XFc1SOuZNw
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